Interviewed by Scott Proietti

2/25/2014 This week the conversation centers around work-life balance and how to find an effective balance between the two. It’s essential to find a balance in order to avoid stress. Our featured guest is Julian Howard. Julian can effectively balance school and his busy music career. Read his story below and Let’s Talk!

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Avoid Stress : How Julian Howard can balance School and a music career

Julian Howard is a junior at Ohio University. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on March 28, 1993 to Angela and Barry Howard. Julian has always had a passion for playing the saxophone, and manages to perform several gigs at Ohio University while being a full-time student. He is also an active member of the Phi Kappa Theta Fraternity on campus.

Julian has always had a strong passion for music. “I started playing the sax in the 6th grade. I went to a Performing Arts middle/high school and my mother wanted me to play an instrument and I originally wanted to play the drums,” Howard stated. Julian has an interesting story about how he first began to play the sax. “There was a girl that I liked and our first day of music class, the teacher asked us what we wanted to play. She said sax, so I said sax also. She quit two years later and now it’s my career.”

When asked how he is able to balance school and all of these activities, Julian said,  “It’s hard. I use a calendar and post- it note reminders. If I didn’t use a calendar, I probably would’ve forgotten to do this interview, better yet wake up for class [Laughs].” It does take a lot of time. Balancing school, school organizations, practicing, performing taught me how to use a calendar. Rather than trying to remember everything it’s always easier just to write it down,” he went on to say.

Julian offers plenty of advice to maintain an efficient work-life balance, but he does feel very strongly about one aspect. “My best advice would be to find a stress reliever. My freshman year I wasn’t sure on how to do things efficiently and use my time valuably so I would stress out. I started working out and it calmed my mind and helped me relax, and just do rather than think…we as humans stress out a lot. We think too much rather than do. “